Welcome to the General Discussion area where just about anything goes! This area is designed to discuss all matters and does not necessarily have to be Transformers related. Please keep topics relevant.

I am griefed by the amount of regulations that this government has strangled upon our country in such a short time, and many of them passed quielty behind closed doors. Thank you for bringing these bills to light. Although I find them nearly impossible for the government to regulate, I think their effect will have a huge impact. We are one step away from being a neutered America.

Motto:"For I have dipped my hands in muddied waters, and, withdrawing them, find 'tis better to be a commander than a common man!"

Weapon: Dark Saber Sword

Alright, who's the idiot that proposed this to Congress? Lucky me, I'm taking civics and economics. Personally, I feel like these bills are in violation of the First Amendment. Are there some things on the Internet that may be bad? Sure, but taking the Internet down also eliminates the good things of the Internet too, such as this awesome fan site.

Motto:"Tell my tale to those who ask. Tell it truly; the ill deeds along with the good, and let me be judged accordingly. The rest ... is silence."

Weapon: Twin Shock-Concussion Missiles

Shadowman wrote:

Stormrider wrote:Thank you for bringing these bills to light.

metaphorge wrote:Thank you so much for publishing this. I was planning to write in and request that such an article be created for precisely the reasons you cite.

You guys know this news post is actually two months late to the party, right? We've known about these bills since November.

We've known about them as well. We've been discussing internally how to handle this on the site, most of the debate with how and when to handle it resting on my shoulders. I didn't feel posting this in the news section between Thanksgiving and Christmas was necessary and didn't want it to get lost in the news. It was also not necessary because the vote was pushed back from December to January. Had the vote happened in December, you would've seen me do something with this back then. Dead Metal had something written up way back in the middle of November for this, but I wasn't ready to bring Seibertron.com into this mess yet because I wanted to research it more and read about how the big sites/companies like Facebook, Google, and Wikipedia were going to handle this situation.

With things currently quiet on the Transformers front, now is a perfect time to do this leading up to the most important and influential period of the life of these bills. Now is crunch time -- there's a pending blackout date on the 18th, hearings on the same date in DC, and a vote on the 24th, I decided now was the time to add more fuel to the fire.

The next 7 to 10 days are extremely critical in making sure SOPA and PIPA do not get passed. Please spread the word on Facebook and Twitter and contact your local representatives to let them know how you feel about this.

Motto:"Tell my tale to those who ask. Tell it truly; the ill deeds along with the good, and let me be judged accordingly. The rest ... is silence."

Weapon: Twin Shock-Concussion Missiles

godzillabot wrote:

contact your local representatives to let them know how you feel about this.

Not trying to sound dumb, but who qualifies for that?

Any American citizen has the right to contact their local representative(s) to let your voice be heard. There are a variety of ways to contact them via phone or email. The original story provides some of the links that will help empower you to do just that. Please let us know if you need further help. We need every one to step up to the plate on this one. This is serious. This is scary. WE collectively can make a difference.

contact your local representatives to let them know how you feel about this.

Not trying to sound dumb, but who qualifies for that?

Any American citizen has the right to contact their local representative(s) to let your voice be heard. There are a variety of ways to contact them via phone or email. The original story provides some of the links that will help empower you to do just that. Please let us know if you need further help. We need every one to step up to the plate on this one. This is serious. This is scary. WE collectively can make a difference.

Motto:""Don't look at me; nothing on this planet makes sense. Hot dog, but it's not a pet!""

Weapon: Railgun

fruit for thought but... this bill screws over everybody, including the government. what's the point of trying to blacklist websites. many websites rely on advertisement and advertisement requires what? images of the product. if adding an image of a product will get you blacklisted then companies big and small will lose because websites will no longer promote ads. believe me i've seen google, i've see yahoo, facebook, twitter, everything. if blogs and forums and fan websites (such as this) lose the right to freely discuss our favorite hobby then what kind of message is that? not sure this is the direction they want to take it. which is why i have faith that this bill will not pass. no one can be that stupid to support the very thing the US has spoken against in other countries.

...and i step off my box now.

"The Lord created the fart and added a smell so the deaf could enjoy."- Redd Foxx

I really can't add much to what has been posted already other than I've been posting all sorts of petitions from Demand Progress about this bill and its opposition on FaceBook, and will share this as well to inform people more, but the main thing here I find wrong is comparing SOPA and PIPA to China's firewall.If SOPA passes, these bills will act similar in some form, but, quite unlike China's firewall, this law will not just block the website from US internet users, but COMPLETELY DELETE THE SITE FROM THE INTERNET AS A WHOLE.I'm not trying to sensationalize anything, this is what will happen. Worst part is there is no trial that will be needed or any form of subpoena to the owner(s) of a website that may come into question, but hold them completely accountable, remove the website fully (yes, that means the non-US based members of this forum will not be able to access said site as well) from the internet, and prosecuting the owner(s) as criminals.One other thing I should add is certain companies are for SOPA passing, such as Wal-Mart. Any money going towards these companies just gives them more to spend on pushing this bill through. Hollywood, I saw was mentioned earlier as being behind SOPA, but its actually the MPAA/RIAA that are fully behind this bill, going as far as having their employees calling their representatives as citizens not associated with them and saying they are for the bill passing.

reluttr wrote:I was curious why guys did not post about this sooner. Since if hasbro ever had a hissyfit due to product leaks they could royally destroy the TF community.

Seibertron already posted why this was only published here now:

Seibertron wrote:We've known about them as well. We've been discussing internally how to handle this on the site, most of the debate with how and when to handle it resting on my shoulders. I didn't feel posting this in the news section between Thanksgiving and Christmas was necessary and didn't want it to get lost in the news. It was also not necessary because the vote was pushed back from December to January. Had the vote happened in December, you would've seen me do something with this back then. Dead Metal had something written up way back in the middle of November for this, but I wasn't ready to bring Seibertron.com into this mess yet because I wanted to research it more and read about how the big sites/companies like Facebook, Google, and Wikipedia were going to handle this situation.

With things currently quiet on the Transformers front, now is a perfect time to do this leading up to the most important and influential period of the life of these bills. Now is crunch time -- there's a pending blackout date on the 18th, hearings on the same date in DC, and a vote on the 24th, I decided now was the time to add more fuel to the fire.

The next 7 to 10 days are extremely critical in making sure SOPA and PIPA do not get passed. Please spread the word on Facebook and Twitter and contact your local representatives to let them know how you feel about this.

Motto:"May God have mercy on my enemies, because I sure as hell won't."

skidflap wrote:fruit for thought but... this bill screws over everybody, including the government. what's the point of trying to blacklist websites. many websites rely on advertisement and advertisement requires what? images of the product. if adding an image of a product will get you blacklisted then companies big and small will lose because websites will no longer promote ads. believe me i've seen google, i've see yahoo, facebook, twitter, everything. if blogs and forums and fan websites (such as this) lose the right to freely discuss our favorite hobby then what kind of message is that? not sure this is the direction they want to take it. which is why i have faith that this bill will not pass. no one can be that stupid to support the very thing the US has spoken against in other countries.

May I suggest talking to the site admins for the other Transformers fan sites and proposing a combined effort on this? I fully agree with what you're saying and doing, but it may be more effective if "Stop SOPA/PIPA" was featured on every major Transformers fan site. As it is, it seems like a Seibertron.com agenda. But if you "We Are The World" it, it will sink in as a fan-wide effort.

Motto:"Focus on one thing at a time? Are you crazy!? WHO DO YOU THINK I AM!!!"

Weapon: Semi-Automatic Sonic Boomer Gun

Shadowman wrote:

Vicalliose wrote:Our government has played a big part in destroying capitalism

I'm assuming you don't live in America, then? For all this straw-man talk about "corporations" no one has ever once said "corporations" hate people spending money on them. And spending money is the main point of capitalism.

No. I live in America, the heart of America to tell the truth. But that question was just sarcastic anyway.

Hugh. It's hard to talk about this on a board where honestly everyone panders to a large corporation. It's almost like you people worship Hasbro half the time.

Look. Our government has destroyed capitalism. How? They've over-regulated and over taxed business, thus making big businesses the only ones that can survive and thrive. These huge corporations have outsourced all their production to other countries to avoid regulations and because of this America has become a consumer only nation. Our economy simply cannot grow. But big business is happy because there is no competition. They do not care that their system is destined to fail. Every time a new overbearing law is passed, it causes the small man to fall and the big man keeps climbing the ladder.

Joetx wrote:This is easily the most ignorant post I've read on a TFs fan site, placing the blame on the wrong people. Lawyers? Hollywood? What, did you just get out of a tea party meeting?

Basically, our political system is corrupt b/c we've allowed, through our collective ignorance, the wealthy & "people" such as corporations (especially the financial, petroleum, & health care-related industries) to, in effect, bribe the politicians of both parties into drafting & passing laws that benefit the wealthy & corporations, but are a detriment to the vast majority of us.

And Ron Paul would give them even greater freedom to do whatever the hell they wanted.

Essentially, yes you are correct. But that does not dis-include Hollywood or the lawyers who benefit. It's also large in part the fault of the politicians who took said bribes to begin with. Also have you even looked at who supports this bill? And if you think regulatory laws do jack **** to big business then obviously you aren't listening to your own words.

Capitalism is corrupt and broken without competition and the regulations do little more than bring competition down. Though granted, one thing I still think needs to be done is to place a tax hike on all imported goods and I doubt Dr. Paul will do that. But I mostly side with him on civil rights issues, that's more important to me now.

If you want government to stop pandering to big business, if you want them to stop creating laws which take away your freedoms. Then downsize government and let people do what they want! Freedom of choice dammit!

Vicalliose wrote:If you want government to stop pandering to big business, if you want them to stop creating laws which take away your freedoms. Then downsize government and let people do what they want! Freedom of choice dammit!

Good luck with that, bro. As much as I want the same thing, that is so unlikely to happen anytime soon. As long as people are ignorant of the processes involved in the consumer products and everyday privileges we, the west, recieve, they aren't going to make any stand to choose their spending in a way that will affectively shift operations on a governmental/corporate level.

*EDIT: Even knowing the process, they still won't change..... sooooo ya.

THE POWERS OF DARKNESS ARE A MORE POWERFUL WEAPON THAN ALL THE TOYS YOUR SCIENCE CAN MUSTERDie, Autobots!

Motto:"Focus on one thing at a time? Are you crazy!? WHO DO YOU THINK I AM!!!"

Weapon: Semi-Automatic Sonic Boomer Gun

MINDVVIPE wrote:

Vicalliose wrote:If you want government to stop pandering to big business, if you want them to stop creating laws which take away your freedoms. Then downsize government and let people do what they want! Freedom of choice dammit!

Good luck with that, bro. As much as I want the same thing, that is so unlikely to happen anytime soon. As long as people are ignorant of the processes involved in the consumer products and everyday privileges we, the west, recieve, they aren't going to make any stand to choose their spending in a way that will affectively shift operations on a governmental/corporate level.

*EDIT: Even knowing the process, they still won't change..... sooooo ya.

"People would rather let the ship sink then stop sailing." Or some kind of metaphor like that applies here. Naturally the massive changes that would need to take place to fix what's been done would impede in peoples way of life and the modern day "order of things", so they'd rather just keep sinking rather than take in the reality.

I hate the world...

"Government, even in it's best state, is but a necessary evil; in it's worst state, an intolerable one." -Thomas Paine

Who are the sponsors of this bill? Democrat or Republican? More or less likely a Democrat! Ronald Reagan's policy allowed our hobby, Transformers collecting possible through his liberalization of stupid government policies that forbade cartoons that "advertised" products(in this case, the old TF show) aimed towards kids.

Now we have this monstrosity? Once the **** hits the fan......! Like Pandora's box, the far reaching implications are to terrible to contemplate!